Mute

Netflix is doing a lot of things right these days. Mudbound, excellent btw, is it's first film to get Oscar nominations. It's new show Everything Sucks is a perfect slice of 90's nostalgia. And they've finally started adding older movies to their, up til now, sorely lacking library.  They need to stay away from the sci-fi though. It's just not working out for them. Bright, The Cloverfield Paradox, Spectral and now this, Mute, the new film from Duncan (son of David Bowie) Jones. It's not as bad as the first two but really that's just damning it with faint praise.

A mute technology eschewing Amish man named Leo works as a barman in a futuristic Berlin. He's happy in a relationship with the secretive Naadirah until one day she disappears. At the same time a pair of A.W.O.L. US Army doctors perform underground procedures for criminals in the hope of earning their freedom via forged papers. Slowly we realise both sets of stories are intertwined.

Mute is a lovely looking film. It does well in making a dark, grimy future look somehow beautiful.  But that strange beauty covers up an empty film and painfully pointless one at that. It tells a simple tale that's been splashed with extraneous details to cover up it's lack of depth or substance. For instance the fact that the main character is mute or Amish brings nothing to the film apart from a bit of quirkiness. He could have been a Catholic loudmouth and the end result would have been the exact same. The future setting likewise. It adds nothing apart from letting us know that Duncan Jones has seen Blade Runner one time too many. The story could have been set in World War 2 Berlin without changing any of the plot or story beats. It's all style for the sake of style. 

It's a film noir story that's been dragged out of a 40's B-movie, had it's dust shook off and splashed with a new coat of paint. And some modern nastiness. One story line will make you shudder. Sadly one of the downsides of these older movies has tagged along for the ride too. Women exist in this film purely to motivate men into action. They only appear in the movie to be taunted, disappear or be threatened or leered at. It's pretty unpleasant and will be offputting to a large chunk of the potential audience for this.

It has a few positives though. The brutally unsubtle nod towards Duncan Jones' first film 'Moon' is a bit of fun. The lovely acoustic version of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box that appears throughout the film. Alexander Skarsgård in the lead role is a solid lead. A big lumbering hulk of a man who looks believable in the few scenes that allow him to throw down. Paul Rudd as Cactus Bill is good value too. He plays an absolutely nasty piece of work and it's fun to see this side of him because he's always so likable in everything else. Plus he rocks the fuck out of a ridiculous moustache and gets to carry around a Bowie knife (injoke) that's nearly as big as himself. Justin Theroux rounds out the main cast and all I will say about him is....well if you are a Justin Theroux fan you won't like this role of his. In fact it will probably ruin him for you. *itches*

I found this fierce disappointing and a massively wasted opportunity. Why set a film in the future and use a story that has no connection to the future. Why write a film and fill it with plot holes that a child would notice? Why would an Amish man who hates tech work in a bar full of robots? Why would a character finding out the most heinous thing ever about another character threaten him and then go for a fun night with him? Why am i getting so annoyed by a film I'll never watch again???? Why why why?

Don't bother.